Ainslie's blog
From South Georgia Museum
Welcome back to the South Georgia Museum Blog for another season. Returning to South Georgia now is like coming home and the anticipation of being back in a much loved environment was great. As to be expected, the journey down from the Falklands on Pharos SG was long and lumpy but they got us here in time for me to celebrate my birthday on the island. Having spent 3 months in northern Cyprus working on a marine turtle conservation and research project enjoying temperatures of over 40 degrees and wearing only a bikini, I am now having to come to grips with temperatures of 0 degrees and wearing thermals, down and insulated wellies!
Bridget and I were straight into work with the major undertaking of moving the mountain of incoming stock from KEP over to Grytviken. With the track round the cove still well covered in snow, it was a bit of a logistical nightmare but with willing boating crew from KEP we were able to use the jet boat to transport everything across the cove. The crew from Pharos SG provided the manpower pulling sledges laden with boxes from the Tijuca jetty to the museum. It was a fine effort form everyone involved and we were most grateful of the help.
Our first week has been spent bringing the museum back to life after its winter shutdown. It has survived the winter well with no snow damage or leaks found. Tommy from KEP technical services has been over to re-erect the chimney for the boiler but as usual the actual boiler is proving a little reluctant to do its job. Although we do have electric heaters, to stave off complete frost bite we are often dressed in woolly hats and layers of fleece jackets – and that’s inside!
Having faced a very fat rat in the middle of the night recently which bounced back to life after several severe beatings with a shovel, we are now back on our own crusade of rat eradication laying traps and bait stations around the cottage and museum.
Now begins the exciting task of dealing with the new stock – opening boxes, counting and recording and finally displaying in the shop. We are looking forward to the arrival of Elsa and Steve early October and then the arrival of the first cruise ship.
From a very snowy southern island, until next month
Ainslie